Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a leading figure in English Romanticism. As well as co-authoring the landmark 1798 collection Lyrical Ballads with his friend William Wordsworth, Coleridge was also a critic of unmatched genius, whose pronouncements on Shakespeare, Romanticism, and the literary imagination remain influential even now.
Romanticism
A Summary and Analysis of Percy Shelley’s ‘A Defence of Poetry’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘A Defence of Poetry’ is an essay written by the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). One of the most important prose works of the Romantic era, and a valuable document concerning Shelley’s own poetic approach, the essay is deserving of closer analysis and engagement.
A Short Analysis of William Wordsworth’s ‘The Tables Turned’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Tables Turned’ is a poem from the 1798 collection Lyrical Ballads, a book co-authored by the two English Romantic poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. ‘The Tables Turned’ is one of Wordsworth’s poems from the collection. In many ways, the poem should be viewed as a companion-piece to the poem which precedes it in Lyrical Ballads: ‘Expostulation and Reply’. Both poems are thought to have been composed at the same time, on or around 23 May 1798.
The Meaning and Origin of ‘Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair!’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ These words are recognisable to many people who are unaware of the poem in which they originate.
Published in The Examiner on 11 January 1818, ‘Ozymandias’ is perhaps Percy Bysshe Shelley’s most celebrated and best-known poem. And we find the famous line ‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ in this poem, which is a sonnet inspired by an ancient Egyptian ruler.
A Short Analysis of Charlotte Smith’s ‘Ode to Death’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Ode to Death’ is a poem by Charlotte Smith (1749-1806), a fascinating poet who is regarded as one of the first English Romantic poets (before Wordsworth and Coleridge had officially ushered in the movement in Britain). Published in 1797, ‘Ode to Death’ takes the perhaps unlikely position of celebrating death as a blessed release from the struggles and hardship of life.